Country cottage with a view

Clatto Broomside in tiny Blebocraigs, Fife, is more than 150 years old, but has been extended and modernised by its current owners. Set in three acres of garden and woodland, with spectacular views to St Andrews and the sea, it’s a tranquil haven

The wind tears across the fields of Fife, snatching leaves from the trees. Yet, sitting in Jay Newman’s garden, not a hair moves on my head. “The trees screen us quite well and we created a rockery to screen the garden from the wind,” the Texan explains. “It can get quite breezy here so we wanted to make the garden as sheltered as possible.

“You can sit here in a gale and barely know it’s windy.”

We’re at Clatto Broomside, a cottage on the edge of Blebocraigs. The hamlet is tucked on a hillside five miles inland from St Andrews and backs onto Kemback Woods.

Clatto Broomside dates from around 1850 and was extended in the 1990s, then again by Jay and his wife, Laura.

The couple moved to Scotland in 2008 after living and working in Asia. They bought Clatto Broomside for its village location and ease of access to St Andrews, where Laura works at the university. Jay, 63, is freelance business consultant and works from the cottage.

The entry leads into a spacious woodfloored hall with a timber staircase that was installed when the couple extended into the loft in 2010.

Windows on three sides of the sitting

“You can sit and have your breakfast looking out towards the coast

● Clatto Broomside, Blebocraigs, Cupar, is on sale with Galbraith for o/o £645,000.

● www.galbraithgroup. com room make it a light-filled space, while a wood-burning stove keeps it warm in winter. The kitchen was also redone by the couple, opening up a dining area next to a large picture window.

“When we bought the house, it didn’t make much of its outlook to St Andrews – the brochure didn’t even mention the views – so we wanted to maximise it,” Jay explains. “We much prefer it now. You can sit and have your breakfast looking out towards the coast.”

A corridor leads down a wing where the house’s four bedrooms are. The master has a walk-in wardrobe and en suite, while a guest bedroom has an en suite, and the two other bedrooms share a bathroom.

The loft conversion contains a large family room with exposed beams and Velux windows. Off this is Jay’s study – the windows are placed to enjoy the views while sitting at a desk – and this room could be used as a bedroom.

The couple also made dramatic changes to the garden, cutting down around 100 cypress trees, which had created a monoculture, and planting 300 new varied species. Today, fruit trees are loaded with apples, while a belt of mature woodland still screens the house from the road.

The house was an idyllic place for the couple to raise their children.

“There are woods to the back of the house, which they would head over and explore,” Jay says. “And Kemback Woods are very close – for birthdays they would often go camping there.”

With their children grown up, Jay and Laura are planning to downsize. “We still want to stay in Fife,” Jay adds. “We really like it here.”

The beautiful Fife countryside extends for acres around the cottage, but St Andrews is only five miles away.